This weekend is Wasedasai; an annual cultural festival with all kinds of events and performances planned. Derek had managed to get into one of the breakdancing troupes, and will be performing with them on Saturday. I was kind of tardy to the party, arriving just before his group went on. I sat with Jill, Tracey and Katy and watched the fairly impressive performance. Unfortunately, I was sitting behind a speaker, and wasn't in a very good position to take any photos. Not much was planned afterwards, so I just headed back home for dinner.
The next day, I came a bit earlier to see more performances. I met up with with Hans and we burrowed our way through the crowds to meet up with Kaoru and Maho, who were helping the Niji no Kai stand sell food. We ran into Hilary and Hiro, and then Claire came bounding through the crowd in a yukata; the only person I'd see wearing one all day. She was apparently also working on dragging people to the Niji no Kai stand. We wandered around for a while with Claire at our heels, making loud nonsensical comments. It's like being chased by a lonely mastiff.
We watched a part of the Shockers' performance on the Seimon stage. As I've probably explained before, the Shockers are the main male cheerleading team at Waseda (by cheerleading, I don't mean the traditional Ouen-dan guys who get everyone to sing at the baseball games, I mean like "Bring it On" type tossing-people-in the air, "we got spirit, how 'bout you" cheerleaders). We backpeddled a few yards and parked ourselves in front an area roped off for other performances, where groups from the WIP club performed a slew of dances. I was surprised to see a few people I knew doing an amateur sorambushi dance, followed by a swing dancing group and some folk dancing.
Hilary and Hiro were hungry, so we were going to head towards the stage in bungaku-bu for the Waseda Breakers' performance and eat somewhere on the way. For some odd reason, Claire took "we're going to get food" as an invitation, and followed us to the restaurant. On the way, there was a small replica of the famous clock-tower, which is currently undergoing renovation, and is shrouded in a veil of white until next Summer. I wasn't feeling too hungry, so I just split a beer with someone. We finished up and went to the stage, where a huge line had formed to get in. Apparently, today was going to be a much larger performance than the day before.
The stands on the left were filled with performers' family members, and the ones on the right were mysteriously empty. The floor was all standing room with a huge crowd squeezed as far forward as they could. While I could see just fine from our vantage point about halfway between the stage and the opposite wall, pretty much everyone else had to stand about 15 feet behind to see over the sea of heads bobbing to the music. The performances were well choreographed, but I probably enjoyed the "battle" of the previous day, where there was much more acrobatic floorwork and attitude included in the performance. Although the dancing was good, it felt automated and empty. Might've just been my vantage point, though.
We went back to the west campus, where a lot of the groups had sold out of goods and were breaking down shop. Claire went to change out of the yutaka or something, and we all took the opportunity to migrate back towards the main stage. Suddenly, the Ouen-dan and the Shockers appeared on the stage, and announced that we would be singing one of the songs from the baseball games. There was an enormous push forward, and Aiko (The Australian girl from my Japanese class who had been helping out with the Niji no Kai booth) and I ended up about 20 feet closer to the stage than we previously were. Everyone linked arms and started singing one of the cheers I recognized from Soukeisen. It was an amazing view, a couple thousand people arm in arm, simultaneously swaying and singing with school pride, as the cheerleaders (of all varieties) directed the mayhem on stage. I thought such an auspicious event would make for a good photo opportunity, but as I reached into my sweatshirt pocket, there was only loose change and lint. In those 20 feet we had been propelled forward, my camera had freed itself from its cotton-poly prison, and was making its escape. Panicking, I grabbed my small LED flashlight off my bag and started to frantically crawl between people's legs as they started up the second round of the school anthem, getting some curious glances from standers-by. To no avail, I scoured the entire area I had been in the past 15 minutes. Some of the people around me started to take a more active interest in my manic search, and I told them what had happened. Pretty soon, I had a search party of about 6 people looking around and asking people if they'd seen my camera. At this point, I was pretty sure that the camera would be quite destroyed, as it had apparently been dropped, and almost certainly had been ground to pieces by the weight of a thousand energetic college students.
As the song had ended and the crowd began to disperse, I got up off my hands and knees to find myself face to face with my camera. A student by the sidelines was holding it up, eyeing it curiously, obviously surprised to find such a thing in the dirt. I asked him if he found it on the ground, and he gladly returned it to me. My bodily functions ceased for a few seconds while I hit the power button, and I soiled myself when the camera not only turned itself on, but worked as if nothing had happened. I practically hugged the guy, and thanked everyone profusely for their concerted efforts in locating my lost baby. I have newfound respect for Canon, as the only visible mark of damage on the body was a small scratch on one corner. Having witnessed a bonifide miracle, I needed a stiff drink, which the Hub was more than happy to provide.
This weekend is Wasedasai; an annual cultural festival with all kinds of events and performances planned. Derek had managed to get into one of the breakdancing troupes, and will be performing with them on Saturday. I was kind of tardy to the party, arriving just before his group went on. I sat with Jill, Tracey and Katy and watched the fairly impressive performance. Unfortunately, I was sitting behind a speaker, and wasn't in a very good position to take any photos. Not much was planned afterwards, so I just headed back home for dinner.
The next day, I came a bit earlier to see more performances. I met up with with Hans and we burrowed our way through the crowds to meet up with Kaoru and Maho, who were helping the Niji no Kai stand sell food. We ran into Hilary and Hiro, and then Claire came bounding through the crowd in a yukata; the only person I'd see wearing one all day. She was apparently also working on dragging people to the Niji no Kai stand. We wandered around for a while with Claire at our heels, making loud nonsensical comments. It's like being chased by a lonely mastiff.
We watched a part of the Shockers' performance on the Seimon stage. As I've probably explained before, the Shockers are the main male cheerleading team at Waseda (by cheerleading, I don't mean the traditional Ouen-dan guys who get everyone to sing at the baseball games, I mean like "Bring it On" type tossing-people-in the air, "we got spirit, how 'bout you" cheerleaders). We backpeddled a few yards and parked ourselves in front an area roped off for other performances, where groups from the WIP club performed a slew of dances. I was surprised to see a few people I knew doing an amateur sorambushi dance, followed by a swing dancing group and some folk dancing.
Hilary and Hiro were hungry, so we were going to head towards the stage in bungaku-bu for the Waseda Breakers' performance and eat somewhere on the way. For some odd reason, Claire took "we're going to get food" as an invitation, and followed us to the restaurant. On the way, there was a small replica of the famous clock-tower, which is currently undergoing renovation, and is shrouded in a veil of white until next Summer. I wasn't feeling too hungry, so I just split a beer with someone. We finished up and went to the stage, where a huge line had formed to get in. Apparently, today was going to be a much larger performance than the day before. 
The stands on the left were filled with performers' family members, and the ones on the right were mysteriously empty. The floor was all standing room with a huge crowd squeezed as far forward as they could. While I could see just fine from our vantage point about halfway between the stage and the opposite wall, pretty much everyone else had to stand about 15 feet behind to see over the sea of heads bobbing to the music. The performances were well choreographed, but I probably enjoyed the "battle" of the previous day, where there was much more acrobatic floorwork and attitude included in the performance. Although the dancing was good, it felt automated and empty. Might've just been my vantage point, though.
We went back to the west campus, where a lot of the groups had sold out of goods and were breaking down shop. Claire went to change out of the yutaka or something, and we all took the opportunity to migrate back towards the main stage. Suddenly, the Ouen-dan and the Shockers appeared on the stage, and announced that we would be singing one of the songs from the baseball games. There was an enormous push forward, and Aiko (The Australian girl from my Japanese class who had been helping out with the Niji no Kai booth) and I ended up about 20 feet closer to the stage than we previously were. Everyone linked arms and started singing one of the cheers I recognized from Soukeisen. It was an amazing view, a couple thousand people arm in arm, simultaneously swaying and singing with school pride, as the cheerleaders (of all varieties) directed the mayhem on stage. I thought such an auspicious event would make for a good photo opportunity, but as I reached into my sweatshirt pocket, there was only loose change and lint. In those 20 feet we had been propelled forward, my camera had freed itself from its cotton-poly prison, and was making its escape. Panicking, I grabbed my small LED flashlight off my bag and started to frantically crawl between people's legs as they started up the second round of the school anthem, getting some curious glances from standers-by. To no avail, I scoured the entire area I had been in the past 15 minutes. Some of the people around me started to take a more active interest in my manic search, and I told them what had happened. Pretty soon, I had a search party of about 6 people looking around and asking people if they'd seen my camera. At this point, I was pretty sure that the camera would be quite destroyed, as it had apparently been dropped, and almost certainly had been ground to pieces by the weight of a thousand energetic college students. 
As the song had ended and the crowd began to disperse, I got up off my hands and knees to find myself face to face with my camera. A student by the sidelines was holding it up, eyeing it curiously, obviously surprised to find such a thing in the dirt. I asked him if he found it on the ground, and he gladly returned it to me. My bodily functions ceased for a few seconds while I hit the power button, and I soiled myself when the camera not only turned itself on, but worked as if nothing had happened. I practically hugged the guy, and thanked everyone profusely for their concerted efforts in locating my lost baby. I have newfound respect for Canon, as the only visible mark of damage on the body was a small scratch on one corner. Having witnessed a bonifide miracle, I needed a stiff drink, which the Hub was more than happy to provide.
1 comment:
Lucky... Very lucky. I remember the number of people at Waseda-sai during those two days. It was almost impossible to even get through many areas, let alone SEE where you are stepping.
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